easyJet to trial iBeacon at select European airports

Just as iBeacons can help shoppers navigate a store and personalize the experience, that same functionality may soon become prevalent in airports following a scheme being put into place by airline easyJet.

iBeacons will soon be installed in UK airports London Gatwick and Luton and Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, France. The aim is to help passengers navigate their way around the airport using triggered notifications to their mobile devices at critical points in their journey.

For the time being, and to gauge passenger engagement and reaction, easyJet are keeping iBeacon use simple, employing it at bag drop offs, security areas and notifying passengers when they need to have documentation, such as passports and boarding passes, ready.

"This is another example of how easyJet is innovating to make travel easier for passengers across Europe," said Peter Duffy, commercial director for easyJet. "By becoming the first airline to trial iBeacons across Europe we can help speed up the airport journey and provide assistance to our passengers making it even easier to fly with easyJet."

The scheme is being trialed during the peak summer travel period and, if successful, will be rolled out across the remainder of airports in Europe to which easyJet flies. To use the technology, passengers must have the easyJet app installed. Currently, 9.2 million of the airline's 60 million passengers have downloaded the app. Passengers must also have Bluetooth and location services enabled.

easyJet is not the first airline to experiment with iBeacon technology. Virgin Atlantic has been trialing it in the Upper Class Wing at London Heathrow Airport's Terminal 3, and American Airlines is involved in perhaps the industry's biggest deployment at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.